ABOVE ALL THUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12328, 21 July 1903, Page 3

ABOVE ALL THUS.

BY ADELAIDE STIRLING.

Author of " Dark Magdalen," "A Dead Man's Sweetheart," "The Girl of His Heart," " The Purple Mask," " Her Evil -'■'■' Genius," " The Wolf's / Month,". Etc.

CHAPTER. XXXII.

A s , ROSEBUSH ; AND BUBIES. ,; Whatever Lord Ravenglass had meant to say to Leith was not said before dinner, and for no less commonplace a reason than Dr. ■ Walker;. He dropped in unexpectedly, and as unexpectedly ordered the stranger from London out. ' : • "If you talk to-night, you'll kill yourself," said he, promptly, to Ravenglass, " and any business you may have can wait till the morning. Your will?" smartly, as Nurse Janet murmured; something. " Stuff! You won't need your will for a month of Sundays; and if this gentleman is a friend •of yours he'll see that the way to make you need it is to make it. I'm going to turn him out And Nurse Janet," he turned to I/eith, with a laugh, " was once an attendant at an asylum; she used to handle men like babies, and Til rely on her to keep you out.'. And to be sure she did it he plumped down in tha invalid's room and sat there. It had been a very curious case, and he meant to have the credit of pulling it through. ' : But sharp as he was he missed Ravenglass' grin at Leith as he nodded to him to go. Ho was only saying one word at a time before the doctor, and the joke kept Mm from being irritated at the waste of time. He could have Leith up when Walker went home. And Nurse Janet politely saw Mr. Leith to the gallery door. ; : " He's not fit to see you," she said, stiffly. "If I did not think it "was worse for him to worrv than to talk I'd tell you not to come back"till the morning. But he'll be calling for you after dinner. He's not so well as he seems. I —l'm afraid." , She was oddly moved for a nurse, and Leith looked at her. Then he spoke, at random. '. " You're from—the asylum?''/ She gave him a quick stare, and nodded. * "He wants you —about that."' The answer was - a queer one, since it ■was thirteen' years since Baveng}ass\ son had died there"; but he was used to queerness. / ' V'. '.;...,.*. ■ ■

'" Why did he send for me? He barely knows me." ' ■" The nurse smiled. " He. knows everyone; all about them," she said, and a less eventempered man might have flushed ; though then! was nothing at all in his life Ravenglass was not welcome to know. Nothing! He assured himself of that. " Is that all he wants'/" he asked, casually. "Don't you think it's enough?" sharply. "Yes, that's all." * It was'as if a ton of lead had been lifted from his shoulders that .Mr. Leith went down to dinner, even in spite of the fact that there, was no girl lying in wait for him on the stairs or a dark recess, as he had expected. But that could wait; she .would never dare to go to bed without seeing him. He was gay as paint at dinner and Lady Theodora was gayer, foi, besides the consciousness of those" papers in her frock, she had the. soothing reflection that at this very minute Kilvaraet was kicking hisheels in* the Dutch garden. Everv now and then she laughed at the bare thought of it. But it was too dark after dinner for anyone to see her on the terrace with Leith; and. after all, it was as well. " He's so heady," she thought; "he might come marching up here if he thought there was another man. I really don't like him . any more. I'll let him go as soon as I get the rubies out of him," and she turned her whole attention to trying to make Leith as heady in his turn. . . The night was heady enough, let alone. There was a soft, hot wind that might have blown over miles of tropical islands and warm seas, scented; un-English; the moon would be lata' to-night, if she gave any Hght at all; for the sky was now all clouds, hanging low and thick. : Through the dark came the dull odour, of the heliotrope in the garden beds, and ; the sharper one, of late roses.' Theodora, in her white gown, glimmered where she leaned over the terrace

" Not like Hombnrg, is it?',' she whispered. " Don't you "remember the lights, the band, the people? Oh!" she drew a long breath. What would she give to be in Homburg now, with *hat ruby necklace around her throat? As for KilVarnet, ■he would - not fit in. the picture; and all she asked was to be rid of him. When she.had' his rubies! She smiled as she thought how his foolish confidence about her mysterious maid: had provided herewith a high-handed, lady-like weapon to use for his dismissal when once she had those rubies in her hands. He could not make a fuss to have them back, either, because he had said they were a secret. "I'll say I think he stole them," she reflected, virtuously, "and that I'm keeping them till I find out." ; It was odd how completely she had lost her pass-on for nim and his broad shoulders, and she looked up at Leith. "Don't you miss the Homburg people?" she said, softly. "' I don't miss one of them," slowly. He lit a cigarette where he leaned beside her; his coat sleeve touched her bare arm. " I am quite"— laughed— quite satisfied to be where I am So he was, in a large sense ; it would have taken a charge of cavalry to have got him out of Ravenglass before he had Jael at his feet. Poor little Jael! But Theodora took the quick flash in his eyes to herself. - "You don't want much, then." "It depends on the point of view. I suppose a beggar finds happiness in the things a. queen is bored with." It was a trifle florid, but hf risked it; and it was balm to a lady who had been brutally informed of the powder on her, nose. "A beggar is free," she retorted. "He has not to stay in a dreary hole like this, trying to look after an old man who is quite wrong in his head." It was senseless to play the affectionate niece, to the man who had known her at Homburg. "Ah!" exclaimed Leith, unconsciously, j There was a curious start in his voice, and Theodora looked at him swiftly. ■ " ' '..'•■lt': can't be news to you," she said. " Everybody, knows he's been cracked ever since his son died. I know he has been very strange at times, even to me. ' He has crazy ideas. When you see him again, •; you will notice it." She was quite aware he had been turned out of Ravenglass' room. He had not heard one word she said. A slim, black figure had flitted across an open space in the garden, and disappeared among the shrubs. "I'm afraid it's damp for you here. Are you sure I'm not keeping you out?" He was j filled with a raging desire to get rid of her ; j he had not come down here to revive Horni burg, and it showed in his voice. "I supi pose I should be really going to Lord Raven- \ glass, but— You're sure you are not cold?" I " Who was that?" cried Theodora, sharpI ly. His solicitude for her health did not even reach her ears. She started into the darkness where lie had been staring. "I saw someone. If she had had his eyesight she would have known who it was, hut she guessed at it furiously. " Someone —I believe it—" She bit off the rest of the sentence, caught up the tail of her gown, j and ran down the steps into„the dark. I Mr. Leith paused for one minute, while he slowly and feelingly called her a meddle- | some idiot. He was absolutely certain Jael • . had come out ti« see where he was and ! would wait in the shadows till she had a ', chance to speak to him, for he and Theodora , must have been in plain sight against the r lighted French windows. He almost thought [ i he would wait where he was, when it dawn- .'! Ed on him that Theodora was the girl's misi j tress, and could send her into the house. Mr. Leith caught up with Theodora in six I strides, and took her coolly by the hand. " You're not going to leave me desolate in a strange garden," he remarked. " I really won't be lost in the dark, and all alone." That's not the way," sharply. His quiet hand had drawn her sideways into a path that ran off at right angles. " I'm sure this is not," he laughed, placid- }£. having let her recoil and turn sharply into a scratchy hedge of roses. Theodora stamped her foot at him. "Be quiet—let me alone." She wrenched her good white gown off the thorns and ran. That suspicion of Antoinette had rushed over her again, and it lent her. wings. "The Dutch garden ; she knew he would be there. She's going to meet him," she thought, and ran on, trying to keep the geography of the place in her head in the dark.

(To be continued daily.)